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Ill. Gov. Jay Robert “J. B.” Pritzker, the corpulent con-man acting on behalf of Chicago’s Democrat political machine, could find himself sharing a jail cell with former Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich as a result of a federal criminal investigation into a dubious residential property tax appeal, according to WBEZ Chicago Public Radio.
It seems that Pritzker, his wife and his brother-in-law are under federal criminal investigation for a dubious residential property tax appeal. According to WBEZ, the probe, which has not been revealed publicly until now, began last October and remains active.
The billionaire Pritzker and his wife may face a serious legal threat arising from their controversial pursuit of a property tax break on a 126-year-old mansion they purchased next to their Gold Coast home.
According to the WBEZ report, a Cook County inspector general’s report found Pritzker directed workers to remove all toilets from the mansion in order to have it declared “uninhabitable,” which gave the Pritzkers a huge property tax break. The report also found that the governor’s brother-in-law, Thomas J. Muenster, made “false representations” on tax appeal documents. That amounted to a “scheme to defraud” taxpayers out of more than $331,000.
The Chicago Sun-Times published news of a confidential memo from Cook County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard. The report found the Pritzkers had caused the residence they had purchased next to their home to fall into disrepair, in part, by removing its toilets in October 2015 in order to lower the home’s property taxes by having it declared “vacant and uninhabitable.”
On that basis, the Pritzkers’ lawyers persuaded then-Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios’ office to lower the home’s market value from more than $6.25 million to slightly less than $1.08 million. That ultimately led to a dramatically lower property tax bill for the mansion.
“It’s ironic that Pritzker allegedly planned to defraud taxpayers out of more than $331,000 for his benefit while he is pushing to change the state income tax to a graduated income tax,” said Jim Tobin, president of Taxpayers United of Illinois (TUA). “Pritzker’s graduated income tax increase amendment would steal billions from the state’s most productive citizens to fund lavish, unnecessary government pensions.”
“This man has no conscience. The way things are going, he may end up in a residence provided by the state, and he won’t have to worry about property taxes.”
